RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca­s­ookraj@guardian.co.tt

Ro­man Catholic nun Sis­ter Gail Ja­groop has called on mourn­ers to for­give the killer of 36-year-old ju­di­cial sup­port of­fi­cer Sta­cy Gopauls­ingh, who was chopped to death dur­ing a vi­o­lent home in­va­sion in Moru­ga ear­ly on De­cem­ber 23.

Gopauls­ingh, who leaves be­hind her three-year-old ba­by, was at­tacked in her home.

Speak­ing at Gopauls­ingh’s fu­ner­al at the St Joseph’s RC Church in St Mary’s Vil­lage on Mon­day af­ter­noon, Sis­ter Ja­groop ad­dressed the grief, anger, and sense of in­jus­tice felt by mourn­ers fol­low­ing the mur­der.

“We can­not con­done that be­hav­iour. Yes, we are Chris­tians. Be­hav­iour like that can nev­er be con­doned. It is sense­less, thought­less, and cru­el. It should nev­er be tol­er­at­ed in so­ci­ety. It shows all has gone awry in our so­ci­ety. All is not well with us as a na­tion,” she said.

Sis­ter Ja­groop ac­knowl­edged the tragedy as part of a broad­er pat­tern of vi­o­lent crime that has deeply im­pact­ed com­mu­ni­ties.

“This is just one of many hun­dreds of home in­va­sions and crim­i­nal acts. Many of them go un­solved, and so some­times anger boils up in us—that sense of jus­tice in our hearts, that sense of reprisal, or some­times a res­o­lu­tion. The sense of jus­tice cries out for some kind of res­o­lu­tion. I feel your grief and anger. The gov­ern­ment has called an SOE, and we leave them to deal with that.”

Re­flect­ing on Gopauls­ingh’s life and faith, Sis­ter Ja­groop sought to bring com­fort to those gath­ered.

“Be­cause of this in­dif­fer­ence, this sense­less mur­der, this lit­tle girl is with­out a moth­er, and the fam­i­ly is left with­out a sis­ter or daugh­ter. We feel the loss, so we turn to the word of God. The vir­tu­ous per­son will find rest with God. She is in the lov­ing arms of God.”

She said Gopauls­ingh taught Sun­day school and loved to teach her cousins about Je­sus.

“God, in his usu­al time, works all things for good. In this sit­u­a­tion, ter­ri­ble as it is, be pa­tient be­cause, in time, we will see beau­ty com­ing out of this tragedy. God can take death and bring life. He could take noth­ing and make some­thing. Wait for it to un­fold, be­cause un­fold it will. You will ex­pe­ri­ence deep heal­ing. Do not let your heart be trou­bled. Be­lieve in God. Trust in God,” she said.

She al­so called on the mourn­ers to em­brace for­give­ness rather than vengeance.

“I want to ask you to for­give the per­pe­tra­tor of this crime. If you hold on to re­sent­ment, you are eat­ing up your­self. Ask for the grace to let go. Love your en­e­mies and pray for those who per­se­cute you. Pray for the grace to for­give.”

Mean­while, Gopauls­ingh’s sis­ter Chris­tee re­mem­bered Sta­cy as a strong and am­bi­tious woman.

“Sta­cy was al­ways am­bi­tious and jug­gled em­ploy­ment along with her stud­ies. She was in­de­pen­dent, out­spo­ken, strong-willed, and as­sertive. In 2021, she had her ba­by. She was lov­ing and car­ing. She loved bright colours, a re­flec­tion of her per­son­al­i­ty. Sta­cy was a crit­i­cal thinker and a prob­lem solver,” she said.

Gopauls­ingh was pur­su­ing a mas­ter’s de­gree and was set to grad­u­ate in May 2025 from the Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Caribbean, where she was pur­su­ing a mas­ter’s de­gree in Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and In­tel­li­gence Stud­ies.

Gopauls­ingh was killed around 3 am on De­cem­ber 23. Her com­mon-law hus­band, Shane Gomez, said they were asleep with their three-year-old daugh­ter when Gopauls­ingh’s phone be­gan ring­ing. Gopauls­ingh an­swered the phone and went out­side to the back of the house.

Gomez heard three strange voic­es en­gaged in what sound­ed like an ar­gu­ment.

When he got up to in­ves­ti­gate, he said a masked man con­front­ed him out­side his bed­room and shout­ed, “Go back in yuh bed if yuh know what good for yuh,” while point­ing a gun at him.

He said the sus­pect de­mand­ed a lap­top and mon­ey, which he took. The items in­clud­ed a brown en­ve­lope con­tain­ing TT$40,000, US$800, and two wed­ding bands.

Gomez said he grabbed his daugh­ter and jumped through a win­dow with her. When he re­turned short­ly af­ter, his wife was ly­ing in a pool of blood on the liv­ing room floor.